A joint campaign by GLAN and Front Line Defenders to end prosecution of land defenders on the island of Barbuda has been successful.  

For the past two years, 22 Barbudan land defenders have been repeatedly summoned to court on charges of trespass.  

The land defenders are concerned about development projects which are being built on communally owned land. Developers from large, international corporations have been clearing wetlands, nature reserves, and habitats of endangered animals, such as turtles, to make way for multiple luxury tourist resorts.  

The land defenders were monitoring the progress of development sites when they were arrested and charged with trespassing. At their hearing in June 2022, the presiding judge threatened defendants that they could face jail time.  

GLAN has been supporting the Barbudans in their legal challenge to stop construction of luxury resorts on Barbudan communal land. Together with Front Line Defenders, we launched an urgent appeal calling out the prosecution for lack of evidence and called for an end to the prolonged prosecution and legal harassment.  

In a victory for Barbudan residents, on the day of the hearing, the charges were dismissed for want of a “virtual complainant’. This is a significant victory in an ongoing battle to preserve the rights of Barbudan people.  

But Barbudans still need your help. Development companies, like PLH, continue to build luxury tourist resorts across Barbuda. A donation today will help us: 1) Support local legal actions conducted by a Barbudan attorney; 2) finance research work by Barbudan activists to collect key visual and oral evidence needed to oppose the false ‘sustainability’ narrative of developers and billionaires; and 3) strengthen GLAN’s efforts to build a comprehensive evidence database, a resource that will be shared with other legal teams fighting against disaster capitalism across the region. 

Will you help us Save Barbuda? 

Some unfortunate news. 

Barbuda’s island residents have been excluded from their lands and forced to watch through Instagram posts as their treasured wetland and national park are being transformed into luxury private resorts and a golf course for the ultra wealthy.

Today - on International Wetlands Day - Barbudan activists and their partners have launched SaveBarbuda.org, in an attempt to raise their voices.

The site details how Barbuda’s lands are being grabbed up by celebrity billionaires and foreign companies, and privatized to create the highly contested luxury resorts and villas. These developments are jeopardizing endangered species, water supply and the ability of the low-lying island to withstand climate change — all while upending the island’s unique communal tenure system, developed following the abolition of slavery.

GLAN has partnered with the SaveBarbuda movement to launch this new advocacy website and to drive this movement forward.

We need your help more than ever. Together, we can work to stop these companies from destroying Barbuda’s protected wetlands, defend the critically endangered species they’ve put at risk, and stand in solidarity with the Barbudans whose sovereignty and human rights are being violated each day.

With your donations, GLAN and the SaveBarbuda movement will: 1) Support local legal actions conducted by a Barbudan attorney; 2) finance research work by Barbudan activists to collect key visual and oral evidence needed to oppose the false ‘sustainability’ narrative of developers and billionaires; and 3) strengthen GLAN’s efforts to build a comprehensive evidence database, a resource that will be shared with other legal teams.

It's a race against time as construction continues. Your support can fuel Barbuda's victory.

GLAN has submitted a complaint to the Ramsar Secretariat calling for an urgent intervention to arrange an independent inspection mission. The complaint concerns the destruction of a listed wetland on the island of Barbuda after the government of allowed the development of a luxury resort and golf course by the US partnership ‘Peace Love Happiness’ (PLH) and Discovery Land Company, a US-based real estate developer and operator.

Since 2018, PLH Barbuda and Discovery Land Company have been building "Barbuda Ocean Club" on a site that falls within Codrington Lagoon National Park (“CLNP”). PLH Barbuda and Discovery Land Company have operated on the island through a lease that the Barbuda Council considers in breach of the Barbuda Land Act, 2007. This legislation codified the island’s unique collective tenure system established after the abolition of slavery. For two years, deforestation and sand mobilization for the PLH development have severely affected the ecology of CLNP, a designated Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar Secretariat is a Geneva based body overseeing the implementation of the intergovernmental Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

According to the land concession granted to PLH (Barbuda) the nearby controversial airport, constructed on confiscated land in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma, was positioned to service PLH’s resort. Litigation efforts to halt the construction of the airport are paused due to COVID.

Great news! 

As you may recall, the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda struck out the claim by Barbudans seeking to defend their land from being seized and used for an ecologically destructive international airport. However, the Barbudans recently won their case in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal against the Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority, which overturned the decision of the High Court. The courts will now examine the governments’ failure to comply with its own laws and regulations in selecting the land and clearing forest to make way for the development.  

Thank you to all those who have supported the case so far. This is just one small victory in a long legal battle which we expect to be appealed all the way to the highest courts. 

The money raised so far has been transferred to the Barbudans’ legal team to pay for the costs of past hearings. Each new hearing brings unavoidable expenses and so we need to raise more funds to cover future costs.

We are keeping the crowdfunding page live, so please share this page with others to spread the word and ensure that the Barbudans can continue their fight! 

Here is a suggested social media post which you could share with your contacts: 

“Court of Appeal reinstates Barbudans’ legal claim challenging the confiscation of their land & clearing of island's forests following hurricane, all for the construction of airport & tourism development. Please donate & help continue their legal battle bit.ly/2C7YPIA”

Details on the most recent decision

The High Court, in hearing the judicial review proceedings challenging the decision to build the airport, had found that affidavits filed for the initial hearing were “spent”. This was because they had already been used before in the proceedings and could no longer be relied on without permission of the court. As permission had not been granted, the judge struck out the claim.

The Barbudans’ legal team argued that the judge can choose to correct such procedural errors in the interests of justice, rather than taking the draconian step of striking out the claim. The Court of Appeal agreed, accepting all of the legal team’s arguments and rejecting all of Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority’s submissions.

The court reinstated the Barbudans’ claim and allowed them to rely on the documents filed earlier in the proceedings. It has also set aside the order which forced the Barbudan claimants to pay the Airport Authority’s costs. 

We have some great news for you! The Court of Appeal has granted the Barbudans leave to appeal the decision of the High Court to strike out their claim against the Airport Authority. This means they will have the chance to argue against the strike out and for a substantive case to be heard. The process of preparing for the appeal has begun and we will let you know when a date is set for the hearing.

Back in April, the High Court heard the claimants’ arguments against the Development Control Authority and the Attorney General on whether the interim injunction should be reinstated, which would prevent the public authorities from constructing the airport. They argued that the works on the airport breached Antigua and Barbudan planning law and that continued development of the airport would seriously harm Barbuda’s environment and wildlife. We are still waiting for the judgment on this point but will update you as soon as we are informed of a decision.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, which has enabled the tireless Barbudans and their legal team to take the case forward. We will let you know of any further updates in the case.

We fight on.